Monty the miracle cat is rescued after two months stuck in a shipping container in Cornwall
A pet cat called Monty has survived two months trapped in a shipping container, thanks - it is thought - to a diet of spiders and condensation.
The 12-year-old tabby went missing in July. His owners Beverley and Paul Chapman put up posters and posted on social media and had given up hope of seeing him again.
Beverley Chapman says, “You get to the point where you think he’s getting older, he could have just gone away to die. Plus he’s got the habit of getting into people’s cars and lorries.
“We really had given up hope after seven weeks or so. We thought he must have been hit by a car.”
That was until someone heard miaowing coming from Blackford Removals' storage unit on the Helston Gunsmiths Trading Estate and staff investigated - all the more urgently as the lock-up had been shut for eight weeks. His release was caught on camera.
Watch the moment Monty is released from a shipping container in Helston
A very vocal Monty emerged and was taken to the vets for a check-up. He was seemingly none the worse for wear, despite being very thin.
Fortunately he was microchipped and was returned to the Chapmans - who live only a few hundred metres from the Trading Estate where Monty was found. They were delighted and Mr Chapman even came home from work early to greet the errant puss.
Beverley Chapman says “We reckon he lost about two-thirds of his body weight. We think there must have been condensation inside the unit which he licked and maybe he ate spiders. We can’t think how else he would have survived.
“His coat’s already looking much healthier. He’s fluffing up again now.
“It hasn’t stopped Monty going out but he’s very cuddly now – he gets up on the sofa and the bed. He never did much of that before.”
It is not unusual for Monty to go roaming. He even ended up hitching a lift to The Lizard Peninsula once – but this was his biggest adventure.
“I don’t know how he hasn’t got killed,” said Beverley. “He’s got 99 lives that cat. He’s got an injured leg from when he was run over by a car when he was a kitten. I knew it was him immediately because of his leg.”
The couple's other cat isn't too happy. Beverley says, “Our other cat Jasper’s nose has been put out of joint – he thought he was going to rule the roost when Monty went missing.”